Airline passengers could face delays in getting through immigration on April 8 due to a new one-day strike by Border Force employees.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) which includes 12,000 Border Force immigration staff are set to hold the 24-hour walkout due to an ongoing dispute over job and pay cuts.
The union’s members were originally due to hold a half-day strike between 13.00 and 17.00 on Friday (April 5) but the union said it had changed its plans “after Home Office management tried to scupper that action by threatening to refuse to pay staff for the whole day”.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We will not cower to this aggression; and as a result PCS will be calling on affected members in the core Home Office and DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) to show their anger and dissatisfaction with senior management’s outrageous decision.
“Members will rightly recognise that if we are to be forced by management to lose a day’s pay, then the action should be commensurate to that. We have therefore served notice on the employer that we intend to take a full day of strike action on Monday, April 8.”
Border Force staff held a one-day strike last month as part of the ongoing industrial dispute.